Hey guys, i'm looking into buying some stuffs to start off a rack. Do you know of any website that sell protection gear that is reasonable price and do internationally shipping of brands like black diamond, dmm or wild country ??

Even if you do purchase from overseas, returning faulty items or honouring recalls gets difficult.
On a more serious note, if we continue to buy things from overseas, and not support the local climbing shops, than where will they be when you really need something?
Support Steve at Rock Hardware. He will teach you what gear is best for your situation, and will give you the best price he can :)

Hi Heidi, I've purchased a lot of gear from overseas, mainly from the following sites;

Backcountry.com
Bentgate.com
Moosejaw.com
Mtntools.com
Alssports.com

Spadout.com can be a good price finder and I'd recommend getting together a list of gear you want, sourcing prices and info from the above sites and then contacting Steve from Rock Hardware to see what he can do it for. I've found prices are fairly comparable of late and (for me) any small price difference buying gear in Aus. is offset by the joy of instant gear gratification;)

P.S. I've never had an OS retailer refuse to send a particular brand to Aus though I have lost the odd package to the aether. (Insurance is good).You don't need to worry about paying GST unless your package has a retail value of $1000....

With the Aus dollar down against the USD you aren't really going to save much on some gear like BD. At the moment in the States a normal C4 1 is around 65 US, I think Steve has them for 68 AUD by the time you factor in the exchange and postage you might find going local about the same or better than buying from the US depending on the gear plus all the other good reasons listed.

On 3/02/2014 Sabu wrote:>Hi Heidi. If you can support Steve from Rock Hardware as he supports this>site. He also does seriously good deals on gear so give him a call and>tell him what you're after. >>http://www.rockhardware.com.au/

Definitely buy from Steve at Rock Hardware, I have been buying gear from him for about 10 years, his prices are always very competitive.

I recently bought a set of 6 C4s from Steve at RH. I looked at ordering camalots from the states, but with the postage, credit card foreign currency charges and the exchange rate the bank charged it was actually cheaper to buy them from Steve.

Be careful to check what these charges are when comparing prices and know that the bank wonít give you the full AUD to USD exchange rate!

I would also have needed to have it sent via an intermediary as the US stores donít send BD to Australia.

It ended up cheaper, easier and quicker going with RH. I had local service, the ability to return any items if required and I was supporting a local business that supports Chockstone and the local climbing community.

Amazon: AU$460 all up and they would have taken nearly a month to get here.
(US$368 = AU$425 after credit card currency conversion, + AU$10 foreign currency credit card charge (2.5%) + $25 postage from my mate in LA)

Go with Steve. He is fast, good delivery service anywhere in Aus, good value and helpful evenif you call him at the weekend (as I have done when the credit card payment played up). Nothing seems too much trouble for him. and the prices especially on gear sets are good!

And it's not just price - it's range and selection. No 2011 gear being touted as 'new'.

I've used v12 and upandunder over the years, as well as Facewest. All are good. Note also that UK retailers should subtract the 17% VAT at checkout, so the prices are even cheaper than they first appear, and postage is often less from UK than from USA.

Whilst price differential has diminished in recent years the Australian retailers are often way behind on range. Especially sizes. Being large of foot I really am forced to buy overseas for the item I would most like to buy here.